Kosuke Ueki's Law of Righteousness
is the first episode of The Law of Ueki anime. It aired first on April 4, 2005 in Japan on Tv Tokyo. Kōsuke Ueki, a normal junior high student, has a not so ordinary supernatural power which is turning trash into trees. One of his classmates, Ai Mori, at first believes that he is an alien but soon discovers the truth behind the power and why it was given to Ueki. Kobayashi, who granted Ueki the power is a Celestial King candidate, who like the other among the group must choose junior high students to fight for them in the competition. Although he has the power, Ueki is not safe. This is proved when he faces off against an evil doctor, Kuroiwa. More details on the tournament also unroll as the episode progresses. Plot overview Introduction The episode starts off with Kōsuke Ueki, a junior high student, cleaning up a park and planting new trees. One of his classmates, Ai Mori, spies on him as she is suspicious that Ueki is an "alien". As Ueki sweeps the park, a gang of four delinquents show up and announce that they're going to take revenge on him for making the cops chase them. Another delinquent jumps out from the bushes behind, onto Ueki but luckily Ueki stops him using his broom; the broom breaks. When the others attack him, Ueki takes the broken part of the broom and turns it into a tree and beats them up; this confirms Mori's suspicions. While Mori questions Ueki regarding this, Mr. Kobayashi, their homeroom teacher who had been sitting on a tree all along, tells Mori that Ueki has the ability to change trash into trees, a gift bestowed upon him by him. Kobayashi also lectures Ueki for misusing his power to hurt others and says that he will be punished. Kobayashi reveals the truth The next scene shows Kobayashi and Mori at the school staff room. Kobayashi tells Mori that he is a candidate for the next "Celestial King" and that there are 100 such candidates including him, participating for the title. The candidates each choose a junior high student and give them a special power and get them to battle one another. The candidate whose student wins, becomes the next Celestial King. Meanwhile in the class, Ueki is sleeping and two of his classmates talk about the change in Ueki and how they are getting "nasty vibes" from him. For some reason, they want to punch him on his face! Every student the candidate chooses has several skills or abilities. When the student uses the power (making trees from trash, in the case of Ueki) to hurt others, they loose one of their talents. The reason behind the girls' hatred towards Ueki is that he has lost his talent to be liked by girls. Kobayashi explains why he gave the power to turn trash into trees to Ueki in the first place. Six months preceding the incident, Kobayashi met Ueki on the streets and told him that he had lots of powers and that Ueki could choose one. Kobayashi demonstrates one of his so called powers by destroying a tree in front of them. Upon seeing this, the careless at first Ueki asks whether Kobayashi has the power to turn the destroyed tree back into its original state and decides to take that power—turning trash into trees. Ueki has to be careful while choosing the trash though – smaller the size of the trash, lesser the chance of it becoming harmful to him. After hearing all this, an enraged Mori asks Kobayashi what would happen if Ueki lost all of his talents. Kobayashi replies that if that happens, Ueki would banish from Earth. Ueki is put to a test On their way home that day, Mori tells Ueki about the things she learned from Kobayashi, but Ueki dismisses the consequences, saying that it is "his" problem. As they talk, Inumaru, another Celestial King candidate is shown listening from above a street lamp post. Kobayashi and Inumaru meet, and the latter asks Kobayashi why he has not told Ueki about the grand prize of the game, "The Talent of Blank". The Talent of Blank grants its winner the power to choose any ability they want. However, it can be used for good as well as evil. If the power gets into the hands of evil, it would be misused and wishes of other people might get taken away. Kobayashi responds by saying that the person who gets to keep the talent of blank must be worthy of the title. Inumaru has a reason for coming to the place—to find out a person who is worthy of the prize. Inumaru asks Kobayashi if he had thought of Ueki, to which the latter replies no, as there is still a week left before the entry's deadline. Kobayashi then decides to put Ueki to a test to see how "righteous" he really is. The following scene shows three people, all dressed formally, chasing a student through the streets. Ueki is shown eating rice and sleeping simultaneously at a restaurant; Mori shouts at him for not listening to her. He wakes up and tells her that he might have been dreaming. The student opens the door of the restaurant but trips and falls on Ueki. The student is revealed to be the "most evil and dangerous bully" at Hinokuni Junior High, Sakura Suzuki. According to Mori, he is so strong that he beat up a gang within one night and also knocked out a bear with one punch. Ueki who is unaware of all this calls Suzuki an "idiot" and shouts at him for spilling his rice. Another person is watching all this – Kobayashi, who is seated in a nearby table and eating rice. Suzuki picks Ueki up, most probably to beat him, but when the trio dressed in formals he throws Ueki back, but instead Ueki gets stuck between Suzuki and his bag. Suzuki flees from the restaurant through its backdoor. While leaving, Ueki asks Mori to pay his bill. Back in the street, as the three men follow Suzuki, a child is shown hiding behind a lamp-post and watching all this in fright. Kuroiwa, the evil doctor Suzuki stops at a bridge thinking that the men had lost him. He then notices Ueki stuck behind him and tries to take him out, but fails. Kobayashi realizes that it is the right thing to test Ueki's righteousness. Ueki asks Suzuki why the people are chasing him. Suzuki responds by saying that a doctor named Kuroiwa hired them to hunt him down because Suzuki had smeared dog feces over his car. Just then, the child, who had been watching the chase shows up and yells that what he told is a lie. The child announces that it was actually him who smeared dog feces over the doctor's car, because all the doctor cared for was money and he treated the child's mother badly when she was sick. While he was smearing the feces, Suzuki happened to pass by and decided to cover for the child. However, Suzuki shouts at the child, saying that he was not covering for him. He explains that everyone blamed him for the things they did and he was sick of it. Ueki then asks why he ran away from them when he could have just smacked them down. Suzuki answers that he did so because he promised to a person that he would never fight again. Just then, Kuroiwa shows up in his car, with his minions. The child tries explains that Suzuki is innocent but Kuroiwa does not listen and so the child jumps into the river, most probably due to fear of punishment. Seeing this, Suzuki also jumps into the river to save him. Kuroiwa watches all this and starts to laugh to himself. He then proceeds to makes fun of Ueki, deeming his facial expression "one of the stupidest he has ever seen". He inquires if he is not jumping into the river as well, as the "trash belong together". He tries to push Ueki off, but Ueki punches him in the face before he could; the doctor falls to the ground. Underwater, Suzuki gets a hold of the child, but starts to lose consciousness. Ueki takes a plunge and sees the two in danger. He uses an old bubblegum wrapper which was floating, makes a tree out of it and saves them both. Although the doctor is astonished at first, he starts beating Ueki with a whip. When Suzuki tries to interfere, Kuroiwa beats him up too. Ueki's eyes prance the road, looking for some trash but does not find any, as the city's under a "No Trash Campaign". Kuroiwa keeps on beating Suzuki up with the whip. Later he chains Ueki, Suzuki and the child and tries to exterminate them. Ueki's righteousness In a flashback, Suzuki reminisces the promise he gave to his master, that we will not fight back again. The master advices Suzuki that if he does keep his promise, one day he would find the right person to fight for. Suzuki realizes that the person is with him and breaks the chain off. He sends one of Kuroiwa's minions flying, but falls down to his foot because of the damage caused by the whip. Ueki steps up on seeing this and declares that he will protect them. Mori, was watching everything, and comes running with a bag full of trash and tosses it at Ueki. This helps Ueki create trees and destroy Kuroiwa's cars. However Kuroiwa, who is not ready to give up, activates some sort of a drill in his car and charges in at Ueki; Ueki destroys it too. The doctor is defeated. Suzuki and the child watch this in awe and the former realizes that what he did was what his master meant. Kobayashi, who had been examining Ueki's each actions, decides that Ueki is "the one", and selects him as his "chosen student". However when the episode ends though, Ueki's talent decreases to nine. Manga vs. anime *In the manga, the incidents take a different turn. Characters in order of appearance *The gang of four *Ai Mori *Mr. Kobayashi *Ueki's friends *Inumaru *Sakura Suzuki *Kuroiwa's minions *Unnamed child *Doctor Kuroiwa *Suzuki's master (in a flashback) }} Quotes *"I saw that! I knew you were an alien, this proved it! Who else could make a tree grow out of their hand?" – Mori to Ueki, when she mistakes him for an alien. *"Oh brother! You've done it now." – Kobayashi on seeing Mori found out the truth about Ueki. Trivia *The prologue of the anime is a fight between Kōsuke Ueki and Robert Haydn. It features the use of both Ueki and Haydn's sacred weapons. It ends with Ueki shouting for more power and declaring "It's my righteousness" to a shocked Haydn. Category:Anime episodes